The Reserve Bank has seized about R60m in cash and property belonging to Berdine Odendaal, said to have been former Steinhoff CEO Markus Jooste’s lover.
The central bank seized cash held in Odendaal’s five accounts with Absa, Capitec and Standard Bank, amounting to R42m.
It also confiscated her R18m property in Paarl’s exclusive Val de Vie estate.
The move comes as no surprise as the central bank stated previously that it believed R60m was transferred from Steinhoff International businesses via Jooste’s Mayfair Speculators to Odendaal from 2011 to 2015, in transactions that contravened exchange-control regulations.
In a Government Gazette published last Friday, the Bank said money and property seized from Odendaal would be forfeited to the state.
Jooste allegedly took his own life in March after law enforcement closed in on him over his role in the collapse of Steinhoff, SA’s biggest corporate fraud to date.
Fined
His death came the day after the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) fined him R475m for misleading the market about furniture retailer Steinhoff from 2014 to 2017.
This was after the regulator concluded that he “intentionally lied” to it during its investigation. The FSCA has said it will keep pursuing the fine it has against Jooste as it was legally entitled to pursue his estate.
The seizure of Odendaal’s cash and property to the fiscus came as she waged a long battle with the central bank to allow her to have access to some of her cash it froze, to take care of her ponies, among other things.
She has tried unsuccessfully to force the Bank to release R150,000 a month for her living costs and extra cash for legal fees.
Jooste died while entangled in a legal battle with his mentor-turned-nemesis Christo Wiese, with Wiese trying to get back the Lanzerac wine estate from Jooste.
Wiese launched a lawsuit in 2021 against Jooste in a bid to reclaim the exclusive property in Stellenbosch or alternatively the monetary value of the transaction. Wiese said that Jooste bought the property from him under false pretences.
The lawsuit lists Wiese’s entities Titan Asset Management, CPW Wine Brands, Titan Premier Investments and Wesfam Trust as plaintiffs.
At the heart of Wiese’s argument is that he did not know in 2011 he was selling his prized possession to Jooste as Jooste pretended that he represented a consortium of investors looking to buy the property.
Wiese sold the property to the “consortium” for 10-million Steinhoff International shares, valued at R220m at the time.
The value of the shares is also important to Wiese’s case as he says Jooste knew at the time they were overstated due to fraud that he allegedly masterminded.
At the time of the transaction, Jooste was Steinhoff’s CEO. Wiese would go on to invest heavily in Steinhoff, ending up as the group’s chair and owning about 22% of the company, the stake he built in 2014 when he sold his clothing retailer Pepkor to Steinhoff for cash and shares.
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